It is so darn hard to keep up with social media. Yes, I say that a lot, but I say it a lot because trying to keep up with new platforms, apps, tools, guides, and everything else related to social media is like trying to keep up with a Porsche when you are on a bicycle.

To help clear through the clutter, Social Media Examiner published a list of 22 social media tools that they culled from their contributing writers. I went through the list and whittled it down to the ones I found to be the most helpful and useful. So here goes, in alphabetical order:

Argyle Social: Combines social publishing, engagement, and analytics in one dashboard. You can even separate out Facebook and Twitter shares to customize content for each channel.

Cinchcast.com: Record blog posts, articles, presentations, or, well, anything else you want to share as an audio recording. You can use the web or phone to make the recording, add text and photos, and share it on Facebook and Twitter.

FormuLists: Better manage and engage with your Twitter followers.You can filter and network with people based on location/bio keywords, Twitter activity, number of followers and a whole lot more.

HubSpot: A one-stop shop for social media stuff: Connect with the tools that help you optimize your social media programs, peruse a directory of Twitter apps, and rate and shares social media monitoring software and other sites.

PostRank: Track where and how users engage and what they pay attention to — in real-time. Their data measures actual user activity, the most accurate indicator of the relevance and influence of a website, blog post, or author.

Screenr: Easily create instructional or educational videos that combine screen captures with audio. Videos will play everywhere on the web (and on iPhones).

Storify: Aggregrate and curate photos, videos, tweet, and other content from the web for events, product launches, etc.

Sysomos: Monitor your social media conversations on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and forums in one place.

Trunk.ly: Use this social media bookmark solution to keep track of the links you like or Tweet.